Today in Armenia there are over one hundred individuals who are being politically persecuted in one form or another. This hounding of people for their political beliefs started after the February 19th presidential elections. In order not to distinguish between those incarcerated and those being pursued it is possible to employ the term “politically persecuted”, especially since for the most part it also characterizes those individuals who are persecuted not for their political actions but for the positions they take as citizens.

The politically persecuted can be divided into 4 main groupings. 1) Members of organizations grouped around opposition presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan 2) individuals who played an active role on election day; managers of campaign headquarters and proxies 3) rank and file demonstrators 4) others.

This is not a rough classification. In certain cases those belonging to one group can show up in another as well. Take Petros Makeyan for example. Taking the motives of his arrest and trial into consideration he can be placed into the third grouping but he actually represents the first given that he is the President of the “Democratic Fatherland Party”. There are also many parallels in the second and third groupings. People who serves as proxies on election day were arrested and charged with being rank and file protestors. For example, Tigran Baghdasaryan, Aram Bareghamyan, Khachik Simonyan and others.

Gagik Jhangiryan is the main representative of the fourth group of so-called “others”. The prime reason for their persecution doesn’t fall within the other three groups. One can state that the reason for Jhangiryan’s involuntary isolation is connected more to October 27th than to the incidents of February-March 2008.
 
In this group are also those persecuted on familial grounds - Isahak Malkhasyan (the brother of Myasnik Malkhasyan), Vardan Jhangiryan (the brother of Gagik Jhangiryan). Also in the fourth group is Anoush Ghavalyan, the Pizza Di Roma employee. She was arrested solely in order to get her to testify against Khachatur Soukiasyan.

Even though there are more than twenty parties and NGO’s in the movement headed by Levon Ter-Petrosyan, chiefly included in the first group are representatives of the Armenian National Movement, the Republic Party, Democratic Fatherland Party, the “Aylntrank” (Alternative) Civic Initiative, the “Armat” Center and those in the “Yerkrapah” (Defenders of the Land) ranks.

In this way, the regime attempts to convey to the society here at home, and why not, to  international bodies, that what’s involved here isn’t a pan-national movement but rather a so-called attempt to regain power by the Armenian National Movement (ANM). For the most part, those organizations who share the same fate of being persecuted as the ANM are derived from that party. Such is the case with the “Aylntrank” Initiative, the “Armat” Center and the Defenders of the Land Union. The Republic Party can also be said to have derived from the ANM if we don’t take into account the unique conditions of its creation. The exception is “Nor Zhamanakner” (New Times) as it has no ties to the ANM.

With the exception of one or two, the charges levied against the political players representing the first group are essentially the same and unprovable. The authorities, with this long-term prospect in sight, have come up with a publicity stunt with which they try to prove that the leading forces of the Movement, being former officials or deputies, have tried to take over the reins of power through a coup. The selection was done in such a way that included in the ranks of the politically persecuted are the former Prime Minister Aram Sargsyan, former Ministers Alexandra Arzumanyan, Smbat Ayvazyan, Souren Abrahamyan and others, former mayors, district leaders and high ranking police officials.

The objective of the political hounding of working Deputies in the National Assembly (Sasoun Mikayelyan, Myasnik Malkhasyan, Hakob Hakobyan and Khachatur Sukiasyan) was to avert the collapse that had already started in the National Assembly. If Mikayelyan, Malkhasyan and Hakobyan hadn’t been National Assembly Deputies they would probably be free today and the persecution of Khachatur Sukiasyan would have been limited to economic penalties.

The classification of the second and third groups of the politically persecuted is rather complex since, as I’ve already stated, many with the attributes of being campaign managers and proxies were charged with so-called mass disturbances, resisting police officers and other such actions. Here too there are many ANM members and Defenders of the Land people. Typical representatives of the second group are Petros Makeyan, Shota Saghatelyan and Ashot Zakaryan who attempted to prevent election fraud in Gyumri. There’s Harutyun Urutyan, who tried to prevent fraud in Maralik. Sofya Kalantaryan is another. She got hit with an administrative penalty for working against election fraud in Vanadzor. There’s Housik Baghdasaryan who was sentenced in Masis for illegal arms possession and Hovhannes Harutyunyan who was sentenced for the same violation in Arabkir.

Essentially, Karapet Roubinyan, Aram Manoukyan and Ashot Manoukyan are being pursued for the same reason even though the motives for the pursuit or the charges already levied against the arrested  not always are connected to their activities during the electoral process.

The authorities were pretty picky when it came to choosing individuals belonging to the third group (rank and file demonstrators). In this case too the overriding interest wasn’t any so-called struggle for the rule of law but for publicity. This group includes Vahe Ghazaryan ( the son of Romen Ghazaryan, Chief of the Presidential Guard for Levon Ter-Petrosyan), Souren Sirounyan (a member of the Guard for Internal Affairs Minister Vano Siradeghyan), Sirounyan’s brother and Vardan Ghavalbabunts, Vano Siradeghyan’s chauffeur.

By singling out these individuals from the tens of thousands of protestors and by making false accusations against them the regime wished to show the public that these former officials who were absent from the Armenian scene for so many years were influencing the state of affairs through these coercive methods. Law enforcement, in order to substantiate the influence wielded by Vano Siradeghyan, had earlier resorted to making an absurd move. This was to arrest Seryozha Siradeghyan, the 73 year-old brother of the former Minister of Internal Affairs and Yurik Mamyan, his sister’s husband for allegedly possessing weapons and ammunition.

The charges levied in all four groups are so contrived and baseless that any one of the accused could be substituted by anyone on the outside and not so jailed.

In reality,  by not being able to isolate all the participants of the Movement (numbering in the hundreds of thousands) or its principal leader and organizer, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, have tried to put together a mosaic picture of sorts. Thus, the average individual subjected to political persecution is a male between the age of 40-50. He was involved in the Karabakh movement and in the early days of national building. He was a higher education and state governance experience on a variety of levels. Most likely, he actively participated in the Karabakh War. At one point he resigned from his former position and refused to cooperate with the illegitimate authorities. He feels the danger threatening the nation and is ready to struggle in the name of freedom, justice and political liberties. These are attributes, whether taken individually or collectively, that characterize both Levon Ter-Petrosyan and those participating in the Movement.